Abby Buchan-Howard
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Video content is a booming power source in construction marketing. 82% of Twitter users use social media for video over text.
Though time-consuming to make, it is one of the most rewarding content formats when it comes to click-through and views.
With video being such a popular format, should businesses be neglecting textual content in the place of the video format? In this blog post, Insynth examines the benefits of maintaining a balance between video and text content. Read on to find out more.
Why Use Video?
The phrase “Content Is King” acts as a mission statement that carries into all elements of the marketing strategies employed by content marketing.
HubSpot states that 59% of people prefer to consume content as a video. Text popularity is dropping.
It isn’t just about being more popular. YouTube, the most popular video sharing site out there, is also the second largest search engine behind Google, which means people are actively using the platform to search for information.
This means that a video that fully embraces SEO being properly promoted on social media, can be the most powerful piece of content that a company produce.
Video also has a longer lifespan than most text formats. Especially on social media. YouTube video’s last 1600x longer than the average tweet. This means that even though they take longer to make; they’ll be generating views for you on social media for a greater amount of time.
As well as being more popular, video is almost always quicker to consume. You can present details on your building products company, or construction marketing efforts in a two-minute video that, explained as much detail in text form, would take a lot longer.
Being quicker, visual content is also easier to consume. According to Big Brand System, with so much of our lives being spent reading, even unconsciously, looking at a visual image or video gives the brain a rest; telling you the same message as it would in text form while using the lesser used part of the brain; the visual cortex.
Being so easy to digest makes video content more engaging. Getting this content shared will result in more click through to your website. With the right landing pages and forms waiting for customers, video content can result in a higher ROI.
Video can be tailored to an exact audience. Cisco believes that by 2021 over 13% of video will be live, meaning that personalising your video for your consumers’ personal preference will become more and more important over the next three years.
To save time on content; it is possible to re-purpose your blog posts for video formats. This will open up the options of which social media platforms you can upload them too, such as a YouTube or even Instagram, which includes video uploading options as well as images.
Over half of all viewers will leave a video in the first ten seconds if they are not interested. This means having a punchy title and a snappy opening statement is critical if you want your video to be seen without being abandoned before you’ve really gotten going with your content.
If you decide to re-purpose your blogs, you have the option to host a Vlog; a video version of a blog post.
According to eMarketer 75% of all video content is viewed on a mobile device. Mobile browsing accounts for 53.3% of all internet searches. This means that video content, fully optimised for mobile, can be an invaluable tool in construction marketing.
Should You Give Up On Text Altogether?
If video has so many benefits, should you bother producing text content at all?
The answer is simple: yes!
Although 59% of people prefer to consume in a video format, there is still 41% out there who find text preferable. They can’t be ignored.
It isn’t just a matter of making an exact replica of a video in a text form by typing up the script. As Insynth found out recently while experimenting with video production; humans don’t type as they speak. You’ll need to re-purpose your script for blog use and vice-versa.
Although most social media platforms allow the sharing of video content, YouTube is in a minority being the only video focused site. The majority of content on Twitter and Facebook, the biggest of the social media networks, is text-based. You need to be text-savvy with your content here.
Text has been the dominant form of content for a long time, moving your audience entirely away from it may make them feel alienated. It’s important to appeal to what your customers prefer the most.
Text search is still the primary way of locating a product or service to meet your needs. Google is the largest search engine; beating video platform YouTube. This shows a clear need for text in terms of ease of access for prospects.
Conclusion: The Benefits Of A Balance
When it comes to construction marketing there is a multitude of benefits to using video. But it shouldn’t come with the cost of having to ignore text.
Video can be shared across multiple platforms, but only has a handful purely dedicated to that content type.
Text is more widely used in construction marketing, but the growing popularity of video means that it can no longer be the only choice for promoting building products.
The key to finding a balance between the two formats so as to see what works best for you. Insynth recommends creating a combination of the two.
This will give your potential customers, and visitors to your website, an option as to how they consume their content. It is important to focus on what works for your construction marketing efforts. If video content is more successful, focus on that, if text it, roll back video product to a less frequent effort.
Would you like to find out more about how your social media strategies could be improved? Read on to see how Insynth can help you to grow your social media plans and use it to expand growth.
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How Insynth Can Help You
Are you achieving the results you want to with your social media posts? Insynth’s social media service is designed to provide you with complete control over your brand image and messaging across social media platforms. We will work with you to tailor a personalised social media presence, advising you in terms of:
- Social consultancy: developing your personalised social media strategy based on your marketing goals.
- Managing your brand: securing engaging usernames and profiles that match your campaigns to highlight your brand image.
- Social tone and nature: finding the right voice and style for your brand’s social media presence.
- Social media monitoring: Highlighting customers’ positive feedback across your social media channels and involving you in conversations.
- Social PPC: Implementing social ads to develop your social media presence.
- Social PR: Networking on social media platforms to expand your range of contacts, prospects and clients.
- Creative Discussion: Creating fast, reactive updates to spark conversations and visibility online.
- Reporting and Analytics: Analysing data to review the effectiveness of your social media strategy and activity on each platform, to inform future activities.
- Cross Channel Promotion: Ensuring that your messages reach audiences across all social media and marketing channels to expand your reach.
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About Insynth
As the only HubSpot certified agency to major on construction marketing, we bring together construction marketing strategy, digital strategy, website design, SEO, content marketing, email marketing, sales automation, marketing automation and HubSpot CRM implementation to produce successful campaigns and great results for our clients.
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